Nomenclature
by toomanycurls
Summary: "Do you think we should use our real names to sign this?" Remus asked glancing at his friends. "We might not want Dumbledore to find this and see who made this." Challenge fic


"Are you sure there's a secret passage there, James," Remus asked looking over his friend's shoulder as they all huddled around a large piece of parchment. "I thought that hallway had one passage and it's already drawn on."

James took his quill off the parchment and rolled onto his back. Tapping the point of the quill on his chin, James looked thoughtful. "You're right, there's only one secret passage there – this is a broom cupboard," he said repositioning himself to continue drawing.

Sirius, Peter, James, and Remus were sprawled on the floor of their dormitory with the door locked and several lamps lit. School was well into swing but snow had not yet reached Hogwarts. Over the previous summer, the four friends decided to document their knowledge of the Hogwarts' grounds, buildings, and most importantly – secret passages. They had to, "create a lasting legacy," as Sirius put it when they met in Diagon Alley in July. The idea had been wishful thinking until the topic came up again on the train.

Each of them had researched an element of a magical map without telling the others. Peter discovered the _homenum revelio _spell and thought it could be used, with modification, to identify where people were in the castle. James had the idea of using the same enchantment that makes portraits come to life to make the map an up to date representation of the castle even if it changes over time. Remus found a clever way to make the map only visible to people who said the right phrase so that others could not use the map for ill purpose. Sirius found an old book in his parent's study that detailed how to imprint a part of the owner or maker into the object. This was usually reserved for dark magic and muggle-harming objects but Sirius thought it could be useful to make sure people knew who made the map.

The map would have seemed excessively ambitious for any other group of students, but these students had recently succeeded in becoming animagi – all of them except for Remus who was a werewolf and did not need to transform into anything else. They felt unstoppable and wanted to conquer the map like they had their complex transfiguration.

"We should have a name for the map," Sirius said looking up from his work on the dungeons. "It should sound cool, suave, and debonair."

"We are _not_ calling it the Sirius Black Map of Hogwarts," James said with a slight smirk on his face. Peter laughed and shook his head in agreement.

"It should represent all of us," Peter said quietly, keeping his eyes on the part of the lake he was drawing. "We've all put into it."

"Well, we've been 'those pesky marauding kids' to Filch for a few years," Remus said dipping his quill in ink to jot the name down on a scrap of parchment.

Sirius laughed buoyantly. "Most everyone else sees us as 'those cool Marauding fellows' now." They had been in their first year when Filch declared them marauders. Before that incident, they hadn't done anything egregious enough to gain the same level of scandal they did when they earned their pseudonym.

"_James, are you sure the kitchens are this way?" Peter asked in a low whisper. "I thought it would be on the main floor."_

_It was a Saturday night and the four boys snuck out for food. They had been out on the grounds that day and somehow missed dinner while they were enjoying the springtime sun. It was hard to fit all four of them under the cloak but no one wanted to just wait in the dormitory while the others went out and had an adventure. _

"_We could have left you behind, Peter," Sirius said under his breath. "There'd be room for us to stand up all the way at least."_

_Averting attention from Sirius' cantankerous remark, Remus chimed in, "James' dad sent a letter telling him where to find the kitchens. I'm sure he's a reliable source for information."_

_James stopped suddenly causing the other three to walk into him. "Sorry, mates," he said quickly. "Here's the painting." With a quick look up and down the corridor, James decided the coast was clear enough and swept his invisibility cloak from the small group. "This is the kitchen."_

"_Um… we get our food from a painting?" Sirius asked sardonically. Food depravation did not do his temper any favors. _

"_It's the door, you troll," Remus said before James responded. They were all staring at the giant portrait of fruit. "How do you open it?" Remus asked nudging James impatiently. He was quite hungry as well. _

_Reaching out slowly, James moved his fingers over the green pear causing a ripple in the paint. Increasing the speed of his waving fingers, he caused the pear to giggle until the portrait clicked and swung forward slightly. The first waft of food and other delicious smells hit the ravenous boys and they clamored to be the first ones in the legendary kitchen of Hogwarts. _

_Tiny house-elves came up to them as they entered, asking what they would like and rushing off to prepare the food each of them called out. There were tables throughout the room that looked quite familiar. It was after his second plate of food that Peter put together what the room reminded him of. "This is the same as the Great Hall – same tables and everything," he pointed towards the far end of the room, "There's Dumbledore's seat too." _

"_Suppose we could take some of this back with us?" James pondered out loud. Before a request was formally, made, three house-elves came forward with bundles of food. "Oh, thank you!" he said taking the food. _

"_These lot are much nicer than the house-elf we have at home," Sirius said jerking his head towards the retreating elves. "Ours is an old toe-rag."_

_Feeling satiated from the large and generous meal, Remus began to look around the room. The many stovetops and ovens were still radiating heat. On the wall there was a list of foods to prepare for each meal. "Looks like kippers and eggs tomorrow with biscuits," Remus told the others. "We should probably head back to the tower if we want to be awake for that."_

_The others grunted their agreement and all got up from the table they were at. Only Peter turned back from the door said a quick thanks to the house-elves. Once outside the kitchen James looked at each of his friends carrying food. "Maybe we should risk the walk back without the cloak. It was hard enough getting here with just us under it." James tucked his cloak into his robes and moving towards the stairs up to the main floor. _

_They weren't five minutes away from the kitchen when Filch's footsteps could be heard pounding the stone behind them. "The kitchens are not your personal pantry!" he shouted at them catching sight of the bundled food. _

_After a momentary pause to exchange looks of terror and excitement, the four young boys started to run towards the nearest passageway they could to escape the caretaker. "Up here!" Sirius said running towards a hidden staircase behind a tapestry not too far ahead. _

_Instead of a hidden stairwell, Sirius ran into the wall and his friends collided into him. "Way to go, Sirius," James said scathingly. It was too late to run, Filch had caught up to them. _

"_With me you four. You'll learn that the kitchen is not there for you pesky marauders to take from as you please," he said with a wheeze. _

_After their detention, and many points taken from Gryffindor, the worst punishment had been the jeers from their fellow Lions and Slytherins. "Down to marauding, are you? I thought the name of Black commanded more respect than that." Sirius' cousin had sneered at them. _

_Over the years the term marauder became synonymous with James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus – especially their rule breaking and pranks. By their third year, the Marauders began to wear the title with pride. Often bringing food and other treats from the kitchens and Hogsmeade to the Common Room for all to enjoy. The name transformed from one of mockery to one that inspired respect and admiration from other students. _

"Anyone up for a snack?" Peter asked stretching out. "I can't decide if I'm tired or hungry."

"We could use a break," Remus said getting up from the floor. "We should use the cloak, don't you think, James?" Since being named prefect that year, he had been less keen at getting caught blatantly disregarding school rules.

James, who was already opening his trunk to grab the silvery cloak nodded. "Or we could all transform and Remus could wear the cloak," he said eagerly. Apart from their initial transformation, the new animagi hadn't been able to flex their newfound abilities much due to school and their map obsession.

"We _might_ get more attention with a dog, a rat, and a stag roaming into the kitchen than four slightly visible pairs of feet and ankles in the dark. Just a thought, mate," Sirius said with a rogue grin.

The oft traveled route to the kitchen was clear of anyone who might get the group into trouble. The house-elves, who were accustomed to their late night visits, came with their favorite desserts, pumpkin juice, and tea. Sitting below their usual spot in the Great Hall, they dug into their puddings, ice creams, and treacle tart with gusto.

"Were you surprised by your animal forms?" Remus asked through a mouthful of pudding. Washing it down with a sip of tea, he continued, "I mean, they're supposed to represent your personalities."

Sirius smirked as he took a bite of ice cream. "Wouldn't be the first time someone's called me a dog," he said waggling his eyebrows. "What about Peter's rat? Is it because he eats three times as much cheese as the rest of us?"

Peter laughed and shook his head at Sirius. "Maybe it's because someone had to be subtle and inconspicuous – like me." Peter's voice rang with a certain pride that indicated he had been raking over his animal form to find its redeeming qualities. "Better than one of Father Christmas' reindeer."

"I am a _stag_, not a reindeer," James said pointing his spoonful of treacle tart at Peter. "I don't want to be associated with prancing."

"At least I won't be the only one with a furry secret," Remus said with a sly grin. "Though, I am slightly worried that-"

"One of us will get caught, go to Azkaban, and then break out to seek our revenge?" Sirius offered with a sarcastic wave of his hands.

"I'll go to court saying 'I couldn't help it, the werewolf _made me_ work for years to become an animagus,'" James teased. "You worry too much, Remus."

"Way too much," Peter agreed smiling. Knowing the risk of illegally performing the work to become animagi did not begin to outweigh how proud they felt at their achievement. Ramifications, if any existed, paled in comparison to being the youngest wizards to become animagi.

Several weeks later, the map was still a work in progress. Their fifth year and the upcoming OWL exams were keeping all four of the Marauders studying late into the night. Despite the overwhelming workload, Sirius pushed them to keep working on the map. Often they would leave the Common Room after midnight only to stay up for another hour adding more detail and enchantment to the map. It was close to the Christmas break when they were almost ready to sign and finalize the map.

Signing the map would be their catalyst for imbuing their personalities into the map. They had jinxed it so the map would insult people who did not know the right phrase to activate it but it only said a jumble of swearwords. Sirius had gathered the special ingredients for the signing potion by hanging back in Slughorn's class and nabbing items from his cupboard. The potion needed to include bits of the person who it was to emulate in the object – each of them had to donate hair, drops of blood, and sweat to be combined with their individual signing potion. They were using an empty classroom to work on the final potion blend.

"Do you think we should use our real names to sign this?" Remus asked glancing at his friends. "We might not want Dumbledore to find this and see who made this."

James leaned back in his chair to think. "Well, _what should we call each other_*?" he asked looking to his friends.

"Something related to our animagus forms," Peter said shaking his potion vial. "They should be…" he was lost in thought midsentence.

"Descriptive?" Sirius offered. "I was thinking black hairy dog myself."

Rolling his eyes, Remus said, "Maybe they should be a _little_ subtle." Looking up at the ceiling for inspiration, he continued, "You could be Prongs, James."

James looked over at Remus. "Prongs? Because I'm a stag? Hmm." James seemed to be running the name through his mind to get a feel for it.

"We could call Peter Wormtail," Sirius suggested. "Every time I have to follow him onto the grounds I just tell myself to follow the worm."

Peter smiled sheepishly. "That sounds good then," he said looking to Remus and James for their loops of approval. "Now you need a name, Sirius."

"Unfortunately, Black wouldn't work," James said giving Sirius an appraising look. "Hairy wouldn't be a suitable name either… you do have gigantic paws."

"If you start calling me Big Foot…" Sirius said pointing a finger at James who was suppressing a smile. "What about Padfoot?" Sirius said suddenly.

"I like that," Remus offered. "Now I just need to pick a nom de plume."

Silence fell over the room for a few minutes before James sat up as if hit by a bludger. "Moony! You could be Moony!"

Remus raised an eyebrow at the name. "Won't that be a bit obvious? Why not call me Wolfy to be a bit more obvious?"

"Moony could mean a lot of things," Peter said vaguely. "Maybe you like moonstones," he finally offered.

Sirius wrote their proposed names on a bit of paper. _Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs_. "They have a nice ring to them," he said after a few moments looking over their names in print. "That is, if you can live with Moony, Remus."

Contemplating the name for a few more moments, Remus nodded his agreement. "I can live with that name. Shall we sign?"

Grabbing his vial, Remus dipped his quill in the brown-red ink. Bending low over the parchment, he signed his new name in a large curly signature. Peter went next and signed Wormtail in an untidy scrawl. Sirius signed Padfoot as if he'd been signing that as his name for his entire life. James went last and managed a very smooth copy of the name his friends picked for him.

With furtive grins, the Marauders glanced at one another. The feeling of accomplishment at finishing the Marauders Map topped anything else they had done as friends. Opening the map up, James said, "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good," and watched the map come to life.

A/N:

This was written for coppertop1's Downton Abbey challenge. The line "What shall we call each other" is from Downton Abbey and belongs to the BBC.


End file.
